In article <c55cb6$2ifk$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, dave williams says...

Urban warfare grips Iraq By David Blair in Baghdad and Alec Russell
and David Rennie (Filed: 08/04/2004)

America abandoned restraint in Iraq yesterday and launched an all-out
attempt to impose its will on the country, bombing a mosque compound
and promising to destroy the militia of the rebel Shia leader,
Moqtada al-Sadr.

In the heaviest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year
ago, US forces dropped two 500lb bombs and fired rockets on a mosque
in Fallujah, the centre of the Sunni insurgency against the occupation.

Bodies of Iraqis killed in Fallujah are brought to a mosque Iraqis
said that at least 25 people had died, raising fears of an explosion
of anger in the Muslim world.

Last night there were signs of the trouble spreading north when
police in Kirkuk reported that 13 people had been killed and 20
wounded by American soldiers in a battle that erupted during
demonstrations against the bombing of the mosque.

US commanders said the bombs were dropped after insurgents took
refuge in the mosque compound.

Click to enlarge Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad: "My
understanding is that we went after insurgents who were hiding
behind the outer wall, not the mosque itself."

He said that mosques were generally protected from assault but that
the rules of engagement permitted US forces to return fire if they
came under attack.

"I understand there was a large casualty toll taken by the enemy,
who were abusing that mosque and everything it stood for. When you
start using a religious location for military purposes, it loses
its protected status."

Donald Rumsfeld insists the unrest in Iraq is just a 'power play'
The attack was launched on the fourth day of the intensifying
conflict, with coalition forces fighting on two fronts against
Sunnis and Shi'ites and as new flashpoints flared across the country.

President George W Bush spoke to Tony Blair about the upsurge of
fighting before their talks next week as their opponents pressed
them to clarify their plans to hand over sovereignty to Iraq on
June 30. But officials in Washington and London insisted there was
no crisis.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said coalition forces
faced a "serious" problem but played down the scale of the insurgency.

"The stakes are high," he said. But he insisted that the unrest was
a "power play" by a small number of "increasingly desperate
terrorists".

While the fighting worsened in Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad,
the coalition effectively surrendered a provincial capital to gunmen
loyal to Sadr.

The Coalition Provisional Authority's headquarters in the city of
Kut, 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, was evacuated under heavy
fire from Sadr's militia.

Thirteen Britons were among those who fled as a South African
security contractor was killed.

Ukrainian forces failed to defend the compound and pulled out of
Kut. Previously, only Iraqi policemen had abandoned their positions
under attack from Sadr's Mahdi army.

The rout of the Ukrainian forces underlined the weakness of the
coalition forces in most of the south.

Coalition sources said the allied armies were not in a position to
confront Sadr's militia except in Baghdad.

But Gen Kimmitt was confident. He said: "The coalition and Iraqi
security forces will continue deliberate, precise and powerful
offensive operations to destroy the Mahdi army throughout Iraq."
Sadr should "turn himself in".

The biggest of the offensives was on Sunni insurgents in Fallujah
and Ramadi. About 2,000 soldiers from 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
were engaged in house-to-house fighting.

In Ramadi, where 12 American marines were killed on Tuesday, mosques
broadcast calls for a holy war against the troops.

Operation Vigilant Resolve, the offensive against gunmen responsible
for daily attacks on US forces, has now claimed at least 150 Iraqi
lives. More than 30 American soldiers have been killed on the two
fronts since the weekend.

The attack on the mosque was launched by a jet fighter and a
helicopter gunship. They struck the compound after worshippers had
gathered for afternoon prayers.

The Americans said that gunmen in the mosque had destroyed a Humvee
vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade, wounding five marines.

Lt-Col Brennan Byrne, the commander of 1st Bn 5th Marine Regiment,
said his men had now pressed into the centre of Fallujah.

The 250,000 people of the city are running short of food. A local
doctor said that 16 children and eight women had been killed in an
air strike on houses on Tuesday.

A huge area of western Iraq has been sealed off, with the highway
linking Baghdad with the Jordanian capital, Amman, closed to all
traffic.

An American helicopter was shot down in Baquba, 20 miles north-east
of Baghdad, and a British civilian contractor, Gary Teeley, was
kidnapped in the southern town of Nasiriyah.

7 April 2004: America's bloody burden in Iraq 6 April 2004: Iraqi
militia leader holed up in shrine

Related reports

Leader: More troops for Iraq

Alec Russell: Bush still favourite

US aircraft attacks Fallujah mosque

Shia militia takes Kut

Mahdi army steels itself

Blair/Bush summit

My enemy's enemy

British civilian kidnapped

Iraq factfile

External links

U.S. air strike hits mosque in Fallujah [7 Apr '04] - Washington
Post

Scores dead as Falluja resists US onslaught [7 Apr '04] - Al Jazeera

U.S. forces conducting raids in Fallujah [6 Apr '04] - US Department
of Defense

Coalition Provisional Authority

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